Furnace



Patented Sept. 24, 1929 UNITED STATI-:sA

PATENT OFFICE WILLIAM M. AKIN AND LAFAYETTE YOUNG, OF ALTON, ILLINOIS,ASSIGNORS TO LACLEDE STEEL COMPANY, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, ACORPORATION OF MISSOURI FURNACE Application led October 24, 1927. SerialNo. 228,223.

This invention relates to furnaces and is herein illustrated as embodledin a furnace capable for use in heating long objects, such,

for example, as railway rails.

5 Furnaces of the type mentioned above are provided With a slopinghearth formed of spaced bars across which are fed the rails to beheated. The rails are inserted through an opening formed in the front orside of the furnace and are fed widthwise, in file, across the hearthuntil they approach the rear wall of the furnace, at which point theyare removed lengthwise through an opening formed in the side of thefurnace. Owing to the fact that the hearth of the furnace must be widein order to accommodate the lengthwise dimension ofthe rail and must belong to receive and to support a large number of rails during theheating operation, it becomes 3 extremely difficult to apply heatproperly and eciently to this large area. Heretofore it has beencustomary, in oil consuming furnaces of the type described, to locate aplurality of burners in the rear of the furnace 3 and to rely upon theseburners alone in imparting heat to the entire hearth area. It has beenfound, however, that in the use of furnaces so constructed the uppermostHange of c each rail entering the furnace is immediately exposed to theheat of the rear burners, while the lower flange, which lies against thehearth, is sheltered to such an-extent that it heats gradually, and as aresult of this unequal heating the upper flange expands rapidly, therebywarping the rail until it is supported only upon its ends. By reason ofbecoming so warped the rail often turns over when the ch arge is feddownwardly across the hearth in the direction of the rear wall of the Yfurnace, which tendency may he accounted .for inasmuch as the adjoiningrails may not be as greatly distorted as the overturned rail, or theends ofthe adjoining rails as heavily engaged in the brickwork adjacentto the hearth. This overturning of the rails often causes the materialto 'pile' in the 4furnace even tothe roof and results in unequal heatingofthe rails', prevents further charging, and* presents greatdifficulties in 'ejecting the rails as they are fed from the front ofthe furnace to the rear thereof. By virtue of such a provision the railsare heated equally throughout, thereby causing equal expansion of therails and eliminatingi'warpage.

A feature of the invention which 'aims to-` ward the accomplishment. ofthe foregoing object consists in providing a furnace of thecharacter'described with a plurality of burners located in the rear ofthe furnace for use in imparting heat to the top portions of railslocated within the furnace, and a plurality of burners at the front ofthe furnace for use in heating the bottom portions of the rails.

In the illustrated embodiment of the invention, the burners in the frontof the furnace are located beneath the spaced skid pipes, or bars, thatform the hearth of the furnace, and being so located the heat generatedby the burners is projected directly upon the lower surfaces of railspositioned upon the skid bars.

Other features and objects of the invention will become apparent from areading of the following specification in the light of the accompanyingdrawings, in which Fig. 1 is a view in side elevation showing in sectiona furnace embodying the invention, and Fig. 2 is a plan view in sectionof the furnace illust-rated in Fig. 1.

As shown in the drawings, the reference numeral 10 indicates the frontwall of a furnace having side walls 12 and 14, a rear wall 16, and aroof 18. The hearth of the furnace, indicated at 20, has formed at therear thereof a bridge wall 22 and is provided on its underside with aplurality of air passages 24. The exposed uppersurface of the hearthslopes along the area indicated by the reference numeral 26 and is cutaway at 28 to receive the spaced parallel skid bars, or skid pipes, 30upon which the railway ralls 32 are adapted to be supported and fed.

A series of openings is formed within the rear wall of the furnacejandin each of these openings there is mounted a burner tile 34 composed ofa heat resisting material and "having the opening which extends throughthe tile restricted near the outer end thereof. Located adjacent to theouter end of each of the tiles 34 is an oil burner 36 adapted to receivefuel from the supply conduit 38 and to be controlled by means of a valve40.

In the operation of the furnace the rails 32 are fed across furnacechargers 42 width- Wise through an opening 44 in the front wall of thefurnace, downwardly across the skid bars 30, and are finally. removedthrough a discharge opening 46 formed in the side wall 12 of thefurnace. During the. time that the rails are fed in this manner, heat isimparted to them by means of the flame from the burners 36 impingingupon the bridge wall 22, striking upon the roof 18 and being ,deflecteddownwardly upon the upper portions of the rails. It is clear thatheating the rails in this manner results in the top portions becomingheated more quickly than the lower portions,

resulting in unequal expansion and causing the rails to warp.

To the end of preventing warpage of the rails, the inventioncontemplates positioning burners within the forward wall of the furnace.As illustrated, a series of low pressure burners v48 is locatedvimmediately beneath the junction of the skid bars 30 with the forwardwall 10 of the furnace, and a series of high pressure burners 50 isalternately .ar-

ranged in'staggered relation with the low pressure burners 48.Individual valves are provided for 'each of the burners, andfthisarrangement permits the use of the low pressure burners alone, the hi hpressure burners alone, or acombination o several of thehigh pressureburners with the low pressure burners, asmay be desired.

It will be, appreciated that' the furnace must 'be constructed in such amanner that the heat and smoke generated by the various burners will beconducted away from the furnace, and in the illustrated embodiment ofthe invention a. flue 60, through which the hot gases pass from thefurnace, is located directly beneath the auxiliary burners 48 anderslocated in the rear of the furnace, means fordeecting heat from saidburners to the top portion of material positioned within the furnace,and a plurality of alternately arranged low pressure and high pressureburners located within the front wall of the furnace for imparting heatto the lower portion of such material.

2. A furnace, of the character described having, in combination, asloping hearth, a .brid e wall located at the lower extremity Yof theliearth, skid bars arranged above the hearth, burners arran ed to directa flame' upon the bridge wall rom'which point the flame is dispersedover the upper surface of material supported upon the hearth and skidbars, and auxiliary burners located beneath the skid bars for use inheating the lower 1urf'ace of material supported upon the skid ars. 3. Afurnace of the character described having, in combination, a slopinghearth, a bridge wall located at the lower extremity of the hearth,'skid bars arranged above the hearth, burners arranged to direct a flameupon the bridge wall Vfrom which point the flame is dispersed over theupper surface of material supported upon the hearth andfskid bars, andauxiliary burners located beneath the skid bars for use in heating thelower surface of material supported thereon, the auxiliary burnerscomprising a plurality of low pressure burners and a plurality of highpressure burners arranged alternately in staggered relation.

4. A rail heating furnace comprising, in combination, a front wallhaving an elongated opening therein, chargers located exteriorly of thefurnace for use in feeding rails through the elongated opening formed inthe front wall, sloping supporting bars extending from theo ening 1n thefront. wall to a hearth and bridge wall located within the furnace, adischarge opening formed in a side wall of the furnace adjacent to thejunction of the hearth and bridge wall, burners located in the rear ofthel bridge wall for use in heating the top portions of rails within thefurnace, and a plurality of high and low pressure burners locatedbeneath the supporting bars for use in heating the lower portions of therails, and high and low pressure burners being each provided with anindependent valve whereby low pressure burn-j ers'alone, high pressureburners alone, or'a combination of high pressure burners with lowpressure burners may be used in heating the lower portions of the rails.l

In testimony thatwe claim the foregoing we hereunto aix our signatures.WILLIAM M. AKIN. v LAFAYETTE YOUNG.

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